Help me find the best video card for my budget!

clinicaljesus

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Okay, so I have about 60-70ish dollars, Im tired of running on this old integrated chipset and am tired of getting 5 FPS on Source games with lowest settings.

I need some help finding the best video card for this price range that can run games such as Half Life, Counterstrike, Garrys Mod, Left 4 Dead, and Portal at a safe framerate (meaning above 40 or so, locked, not dropping to or below 30) with a resolution of 1280x1024 with high graphical settings.

The main issue is power consumption, which is something I do not know much about. My computers PSU is max 350w, and I am not able to upgrade it.

So guys, best video card for this PSU? I really do not want to buy one that is going to require too much power, I need one that works.

One I have looked into is the Geforce 430, but it seems to be pretty crappy from what I hear.
What can get me the best performance?
 
Solution

No way with that PSU.

For a system using a single Radeon HD 6670 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 400 Watt or greater power supply. The power supply should also have a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 20 Amps or greater.

Total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Total Combined Continuous Power/Current Available on the +12V Rail(s) rated @ 45-50°C ambient...

clinicaljesus

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Okay, seems good, but what about the power? The details say that it requires a 400w power supply. Could you please explain power usage from video cards? Again, my power source is max 350.
 

clinicaljesus

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I see reviews and frame rate comparisons that show the Geforce GT 430 running games like counterstrike at max settings at like 120FPS, and L4D2 at around 50-70 max. But I also see people saying it is super bad . . .

Also, some say it is better than Intel 3000 (not what I am running BTW) and others say it is not. How is THAT video card?
 

clinicaljesus

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All the 440s that I look at on Newegg lack reviews or are too expensive, and the ones that do have reviews state that the fans crashed or that they were trash.

Any insight to give me on the GT 430? Seems very cheap, got okay reviews. Wanting to know if it will give me high framerate with high - medium graphical settings on 1280x1024 resoultion games like GMOD, TF2, Half Life, CSS (source games pretty much). I tried playing Gmod and TF2 on my current onboard card and if I try to play any maps other than flatgrass I get a framerate from 10-1 on almost all maps, even one TTT map on GMOD where it is just a boat in the ocean.

GT430? Yay or nay?
 

clinicaljesus

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This looks promising, and really want this video card (the 6670). Why is it that it is listed to need 400w when it can run on 350?

By the way, running 2.66hz Quad with 2GB ram (upgrading to 4 soon)
 

clinicaljesus

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Other than those two things, my PC also has a media card reader and a couple other USB 2.0, integrated sound, a small fan in the back (large-ish size, can not tell mm), and a basic dvd/cd drive.

Oh, also. I saw this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0lOPwd69Xc

Really makes me thing that I should have no problem, but then again, some say that it still requires 400w for some reason.

Whoever can give a good final answer will get best answer and I will stop bugging you guys so you can go help others. Thanks for the help so far.

 

No way with that PSU.

For a system using a single Radeon HD 6670 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 400 Watt or greater power supply. The power supply should also have a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 20 Amps or greater.

Total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Total Combined Continuous Power/Current Available on the +12V Rail(s) rated @ 45-50°C ambient temperature, is the most important factor.

You may find power supplies on the market that supply more than enough Wattage to run the system. However, many of them lack the Amperage capacity on the critical +12 Volt rail, which is necessary to properly power the critical components in the system (i.e. CPU, GPU(s), motherboard and Hard Disk Drive motor). This is the reason why graphics card manufacturers overstate the power supply wattage, usually by at least 50 Watts, to take into account those power supplies that have the weaker +12 Volt rail(s).

The Thermal Master ATX12V 350W (TM-350-PMSR), with its combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 10 Amps is grossly insufficient to power your system configuration with a single Radeon HD 6670.

Your power supply is based on a very outdated design that emphasizes more power delivery on the +3.3 and +5V rails than on the +12V rails.
 
Solution

clinicaljesus

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:( What a buzzkill!


Oh well, at least you saved me from making a poor decision.

You seem VERY knowledgeable with this subject, so I am hoping you can answer a couple more questions.

1.What video card do YOU think I should get?
2. Would my computer run a GT430?

 

For a system using a single GeForce GT 430 graphics card NVIDIA specifies a minimum of a 300 Watt or greater power supply that has a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 22 Amps or greater.

You face the same problem as with the Radeon HD 6670. The power consumption of both of theses cards is very similar.

It's too bad you don't have a 350 Watt power supply based on a modern design.